Horticulture therapy is the new buzzword among gardening enthusiasts. PRIME shows you why you should try your hand at gardening too!
Man and nature are inseparable. This may be hard to believe for city-dwelling folks in SIngapore, but the food bond between Man and nature actually goes far back in time. In ancient times, one important way to secure food was for human to identify and ‘tend’ to useful tree and plant species in their environment while eliminating the less desirable ones. And thus the very first form of gardening was born!
Much later, people started to create gardens for aesthetic purposes and for pleasure, very much like the gardens we see today. Although we may not need to depend solely on gardens for food in the present day, tending to our own gardens still bring invaluable benefits!
FOUR REASONS TO GROW A GARDEN
- Get Some Exercise
You know you need to get enough exercise for good health but the thought of donning your workout gear for a gruelling aerobics class makes you think twice. Now you can forget the gym and go gardening instead! Research has shown that just doing half an hour weeding can burn up to 150 calories while heavier tasks such as mowing the lawn can burn 400 calories per hour. Also, putting in regular hours in the garden provides the same health benefits as other exercise programmes such as running and swimming.
- Stimulate Your Brain
Raising healthy plants requires one to plan and solve problems. Different types of plants require different types of care, and factors such as soil conditions or amount of water needed come into play. When you encounter a ‘setback’, for instance if find out what went wrong. You may even be inspired to learn more about plants through books and internet. This keeps your brain engaged and encourages you to keep on learning.
- Better Nutrition
Studies have shown that gardeners tend to eat more fruits and vegetables than their peers. Perhaps it’s because nothing tasted sweeter and juicier than your homegrown tomatoes or smells more fragrant than the herbs from your garden. The food you grow is the freshest food you can eat and are guaranteed to be pesticide free. That’s one more good reason to pick up gardening!
- Stress Relief
The physical exertion of gardening can relieve you of stressful feelings. This may sound counter-intuitive to you: how can making your body do more work relieve the accumulated stress of the work week? But the truth is, all that digging, pruning, weeding and harvesting actually provides a physical outlet for the tension in your body! Also, fresh air and sunlight have been proven to lift one’s mood and lower the levels of cortisol, a stress hormone in the body.
